El Paso Triple-A baseball: Cold-hitting dooms Chihuahuas

Rudy GutierrezÑEl Paso Times Tyler Greene, right, of the El Paso Chihuahuas slides into second base before the tag from Infielder Nick Noonan of the Fresno Grizzlies Thursday at Southwest University Park. (Rudy Gutierrez/El Paso Times)

The El Paso Chihuahuas can curse their luck, and it was certainly bad en route to an ugly four-game sweep at the hands of Fresno to christen their new home.

There is also this: Their bats have been too cold to make any luck or force any mistakes.

An inopportune slump hit its nadir in Thursday's 7-0 loss to the Grizzlies, when El Paso mustered just five hits and didn't seriously threaten after Alex Castellanos was thrown out at home in the second inning. For the second straight game the Chihuahuas never led and on this night didn't join the battle after Fresno's Tyler Colvin crushed a long two-run home run down the right-field line in the fourth inning.

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"It's been a struggle," said manager Pat Murphy, whose team lost for the 15th time in the last 19 games, this time in front of 7,136 fans. "I've mentioned it, but we're undermanned, we're injured, a lot of guys who should be here aren't here. Everybody is trying to fill in and do the best they can. And Fresno played very well for four days. They are getting healthy and they got some guys in who are helping them."

Grizzly starter Mitch Lively overpowered El Paso, striking out eight in six innings of work before leaving for a pinch hitter. The strikeout total reached 11 before the night was over.

El Paso starter Keyvius Sampson came within two pitches of a great night, but the two-out homer in the fourth and a two-out, two-run rally sparked by Colvin's RBI triple far exceeded the minuscule margin of error he was working with.

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"Our starting pitching all year has been very inconsistent," Murphy said. "Sampson threw the ball well, he did well, they got a couple of timely hits. Colvin's had a good Major League career and he made him pay twice.

"In general, our starting pitching has put us behind the eight ball. Our offense probably had 10 hard contact balls that they caught. That's the way it's been these four days."

What little there was of El Paso's offense came in the second inning when Castellanos had a one-out double. Tyler Greene followed with a line drive to center, but it one-hopped right to Gary Brown. His throw home wasn't perfect but didn't need to be to get Castellanos by a step. Rico Noel followed with a walk, but that brought up the pitcher and Sampson struck to end the threat.

The rest of the way El Paso didn't get two runners on until there were two outs in the ninth, which also marked the first time the Chihuahuas got a runner in scoring position after the fifth.

"We just need to start winning," pitcher Blaine Boyer said. "We just need to get on a roll. It's a game of momentum and we just need to get on a roll."